Family Therapy

Interactions between family members can create conflict, and family therapy works to address and improve those interactions through various means of communication and treatment. Major life transitions, mental health conditions, and stressful events can strain families. When treating the concerns of families, our therapists address the surrounding hardships, such as financial troubles, chronic illnesses, and past traumatic incidents.

What Causes Family Conflict?

Several factors can influence family conflict. Changes in a family situation can leave a long-lasting impact on those within that family circle, and for therapists, it is about addressing those concerns first to diagnose the problems present.

Out of the variety of problems that can occur, the therapist finds the most common within families:

• Birth of a new baby
• Growing stages of children
• Divorces/separations
• Moving to a new house/country
• Long-distance traveling to work
• Changes in finances

However, families in their development can occur due to political views, religious beliefs, social expectations, and other stressful factors. Finances have their form of influence, as they can determine nutrition, education, and housing for families and create more elements for family conflict. When the basic living requirements aren’t able to be met, struggles can form. Other factors have more chaotic effects, such as chronic illnesses, death of a family member, or the introduction to illicit drugs and alcohol.

Mental Illness and Family Conflict

Underneath all of these external factors, mental illness has an enormous impact on families when left unaddressed. When the issues lying within the mind are left unaddressed, either by past trauma or regretful memories, they can spread into the present and cause family conflict. Estrangement is a typical result of these issues, as families that have these forms of harmful dynamics create a lack of security and trauma. Trauma, such as sexual assault, abuse, and neglect, has huge psychological impacts on families. Those toxic environments, if left unaddressed and intervened, can create more severe symptoms of mental illness and lead to coping mechanisms such as substance abuse.